The posts from Harvey about the scarcity of Atari 800s reminded me of an experience.

Last year I scored a few old Apples and some other gear at a retro give-away/garage sale in Wanganui. Anyway, I struck up a conversation with a woman who was browsing over some of the computers. She didn't know too much about computers but said had just come down for a look. She said she had an old, old computer at home and thought it might be worth something. She was thinking of selling it soon and ask me what I thought it would go for.

She described it and it seems it was an Atari 800 (not an Atari 800XL..I made sure of that!). It was in working condition and appraently very tidy. It crossed my mind to give her a low-ball figure and offer to buy it off her. However, I'm an honest sort of guy so I told her these models were rare, and if she put it on Trade me she might get into the low hundreds for it...maybe even more. At that stage money was a little tight so I wasn't in the position to make her an offer close to what I perceived the market value..and I didn't want to cheat her. I did leave my email with her, and asked her to let me know when she was selling.

So, there is at least one floating around. Nothing has appeared on Trade Me and I haven't received any emails so it may have gone back in the cupboard.

During the 80s' - I've only came into contact with about 3 others...Eclipse Radio, I think had one on sale? With it being so expensive, I could not see many buying it... Andrew B. took the plunge and purchased one, I would guess the price probably dropped when he purchased his, and there was an American NTSC one. The one I had, I sold to a guy at Port Chalmers.So these will probably be around somewhere...